Spike Lee
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Spike Lee’s 25 Best Movies, Ranked
The man from New York City’s Brooklyn borough is having a good year. Spike Lee, black America’s most prolific and celebrated filmmaker, turned 60 years old back in March. Then, this past Saturday, he celebrated the 25th anniversary of the release of Malcolm X. What’s more, his TV show, She’s Gotta Have It, inspired by…
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‘She’s Gotta Have It’ … but Do We?
I remember the first time I saw She’s Gotta Have It, Spike Lee’s groundbreaking, critically acclaimed and very first “joint,” which premiered in 1986. When it debuted on HBO a year later, I was 12, a latchkey kid, and the parental controls that would lock me out of my parents’ premium channels after school had…
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‘I’m a Sex-Positive, Polyamorous Pansexual’: Spike Lee’s Nola Darling Is Back, Baby!
In what undoubtedly was a black woman ahead of her time, the character Nola Darling (played by Tracy Camilla Johns) was introduced to the world by Spike Lee as the lead in his very first film, 1986’s She’s Gotta Have It (Lee also faced some pushback for a problematic rape scene in it, a scene…
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Spike Lee Promotes Colin Kaepernick Rally to Be Held at NFL Headquarters
Avid activist and famed film director Spike Lee posted information Tuesday about a rally that will take place Aug. 23 at the NFL’s New York City headquarters in support of Colin Kaepernick, the free agent quarterback who’s without a team because he protested the killing of unarmed black men, women and children by police. Lee…
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Spike Lee, LeToya Luckett and More Help Kick Off the 2017 American Black Film Festival
The Root is in Miami! And sure, it’s because the world is a scary place and we need a moment away, but it’s also the 21st annual American Black Film Festival. The festival kicked off with a welcome lunch by one of its hugest sponsors, Cadillac. We gathered in Miami’s sweltering heat to fellowship, but…
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What About Rodney King? Spike Lee and Roger Guenveur Smith Speak on Their Netflix Film
Footage of four Los Angeles Police Department officers beating Rodney King kicked off Spike Lee’s great 1992 film, Malcolm X, months after the Los Angeles riots had died down. Now, 25 years later, he has directed Roger Guenveur Smith’s one-man show, Rodney King. Interestingly, Rodney King premieres on Netflix the day before the one on…
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Samuel L. Jackson, Spike Lee, Jeh Johnson Respond to The Root’s Morehouse Investigation
As Morehouse College’s alumni, students and faculty discover the years of obfuscation by the board of trustees revealed in The Root’s investigative piece “The War at Morehouse,” three of the college’s most distinguished and successful alumni weighed in on the revelations exposed in our probe. Academy Award-nominated actor Samuel. L Jackson (Class of ’72), former…
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Richard Sherman ‘Sure’ Colin Kaepernick Being Blackballed by NFL
Joining a widening chorus of those who have an opinion on the subject (President Donald Trump included), outspoken and sometimey cornerback Richard Sherman says that the NFL is on some b.s. when it comes to quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Kaepernick, formerly of the San Francisco 49ers (a team he led to the Super Bowl a mere…
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Spike Lee Knows Why Colin Kaepernick Is Still a Free Agent
I don’t agree with everything Spike Lee says, but when he posted on Instagram that he found it “fishy” that NFL teams weren’t champing at the bit to scoop up free agent Colin Kaepernick, I had to agree. For those still asleep, besides having one of the most perfect Afros that has ever Afroed, Kaepernick,…
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Spike Lee Says He Won’t Use Chrisette Michele’s Music in Netflix Series
It looks as though Chrisette Michele has lost a chance at a legitimate paycheck from Spike Lee. Lee took to Instagram to share his disappointment about Michele’s upcoming performance for Donald Trump. And in doing so, he stated that he will no longer consider using her song “Black Girl Magic” for his upcoming remake of…